F.B.I. Opening Door to Wide Use Of Genetic Tests in Solving Crimes

By ANDREW H. MALCOLM

Published: June 12, 1989

WASHINGTON—
Quietly, without fanfare in recent weeks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has introduced into everyday American criminology a revolutionary new laboratory identification process, DNA profiling, that is considered the most important breakthrough in forensic science since fingerprinting.

The procedure had been confined to very few cases handled by a small number of private laboratories. But now, by using the F.B.I. laboratory, any police department in the United States can obtain positive identification of a suspect as the culprit, or exclude him or her, based on the unique genetic material in each small specimen of blood, semen, other fluids or tissues. Already, the process has affected more than 200 police investigations, some of them in surprising ways.

Developed in Britain in the early 1980's at the University of Leicester by Dr. Alec J. Jeffreys, DNA profiling has been applied to forensics in Britain over the last 36 months. The F.B.I. initiated widespread American use of the technique after concluding a year of practical tests in December. Virtually Unquestioned

Although defense lawyers in one New York murder case are challenging the technique and interpretation of a DNA profile by a private laboratory two years ago, the basic science has gone virtually unquestioned in more than 80 court cases in the last two years as prosecutors seek to construct a framework of legal precedents.

In the New York case, involving the murder of Vilma Ponce of the Bronx and her 2-year-old daughter, Natasha, numerous scientists challenged a DNA profile done by Lifecodes Corporation of Valhalla, N.Y., on a bloodstain found on the watch of the defendant, Joseph Castro. But F.B.I officials noted that the basic technology was not under challenge, just one technique that is no longer used.

Although the new process can help in homicide cases, it is most useful in sex crimes, historically the hardest to solve. Only half the reported rapes end in arrests and only 44 percent of those arrested are convicted, the lowest rate for any violent crime.

Ultimately, the F.B.I. lab and others around the country expect to be able to reconstruct a descriptive physical profile of a criminal including hair and eye color by unlocking the genetic codes hidden in specimens as small as a hair or a drop of blood. Impact Already Seen

The lab, in the F.B.I. headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue here, has already received more than 220 specimens from its own agents and police departments around the country since it opened to specimens from other law enforcement agencies in January.

Final reports for the first 80 cases suggest that the precision and now easy availability of DNA profiling is already having an effect in shortening, steering and even reopening criminal investigations. The technology is considered even more important than fingerprinting because biological evidence like hair or skin is found at crime scenes much more often than fingerprints.

In those cases 50 profiles positively tied the suspect directly to the crime, usually rape or murder. In 20 cases the tedious but precise tests ruled out the initial suspect, while the evidence in 10 cases was either too small or too decayed to test. Printing's 'Biological Equivalent'

DNA, or deoxyribonucleic acid, is contained in every cell. Different in each person, it forms genes and carries the code for heredity. It can be obtained from fluids and tissues including hair, saliva, blood, semen and skin. Currently, F.B.I. scientists need a bloodstain the size of a quarter or a spot of semen the size of a dime. But enough DNA can be found within the root of a single hair or in small skin samples like those found under the fingernails of a murder victim who scratched an assailant's face.

''It may seem amazing,'' said Kenneth W. Nimmich, a special agent in the F.B.I.'s Laboratory Division, ''but we're now doing DNA profiling routinely every day. In our opinion, it's the biological equivalent of fingerprinting, the closest to a positive personal identification of anything to date.''

In one serial rape case this spring Florida police came to the F.B.I. with vaginal swabs from seven women, seeking to pinpoint one man as their prime suspect in the seven similar crimes. After 45 to 60 days of tests the F.B.I. gave the local police a surprising report that reshaped their investigation and prosecution. ''We told them one suspect did five of the rapes,'' said Mr. Nimmich, ''but they better also look for two other copycats.''

As recently as last winter, the existence of two other rapists would have remained unknown and uninvestigated. Capital Charge Precluded

In another recent case the authorities in a community the F.B.I. would not identify were ready to charge one man with raping and then killing a woman, crimes that together are punishable by death. But DNA profiling by the F.B.I. showed that the semen was actually from the victim's husband. ''That doesn't mean the suspect didn't rape her,'' said Mr. Nimmich, ''but it does mean they couldn't prove rape. So it was no longer a capital crime.''